Is porn a real career choice?

Lately I have been debating with a lot of people on The Escapist about porn, and how it is a legitimate business and/or career to choose. However, many who argue against me say that only women (they never mention men) that go into porn do it because they have no self respect, dignity, no other way to get money and so on. One went so far to say that most are forced prostitutes.

There's a lot of people in this world that believe sex is that of a sacred and special moment between two people that isn't something meant to be had for "funzies" or sold for entertainment. So it being a carrer for somebody to make a profit off of, doesn't sit right with them. Of course, lots of other reasons too.

And that's all fine and dandy, they can believe in whatever they want. I'm not saying they're wrong in thinking that way at all, this is just one of my understandings as to why they have that opinion. But when it comes right down to it, yes it is a business and yes it's also a carrer oportunity.

"In 2005, there were approximately 425 films released in Hollywood, including a Star Wars prequel and a Harry Potter movie, with domestic grosses of $8.597 billion. That's very impressive. In 2006, the cumulative grosses for porn videos in the U.S., leveraging video sales, rentals, mobile phone content and Internet revenues--came out to....

Are you ready?

$8.65 billion.

About the same, and that's minus the billions Hollywood spends on promotion. Oh, and we're going to take a wild guess and say that the combined budgets of every porno shot that year wouldn't even pay for the CGI in the opening credits of a Harry Potter movie. So, yeah, we're thinking that $8.65 billion is pretty much all profit."

"So toys.com, that's got to be the most expensive domain name ever, right?

Not even close. Not even the 1999 sale of business.com at $7.5 million (a record at the time) makes the top. No, topping them all is, you guessed it, Sex.com, at a jaw-dropping $14 million."

"Microsoft, purveyor of the operating system used on most of the computers in the world, reported 2008 profits in excess of $16 billion. ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded company and number five on Forbes' top 2000 companies, posted 2008 profits of $40.6 billion.

In 2006, the sum of international revenues from pornographic videos, sexual novelties, magazines, "dance" clubs, pay-per-view and Internet was approximately $97 billion.

Can you even wrap your mind around that number? Try it this way: that's larger than the combined annual revenues of the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.

This means $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography internationally every second. To put that in perspective, when ExxonMobil posted a quarterly profit of $11.7 billion last year, the largest in American history, they were effectively making $1,947 less per second than the world of filth mongers"

I think it is a legitmate business, but not a career. Not as an actor, at least. It's a young person's game, if you start at 18 you will probably only be able to do it for 3-4 years, and then you get bumped out by younger people. So a good job? Yes. A good career? Not exactly.

tiny tim wrote:I think it is a legitmate business, but not a career. Not as an actor, at least. It's a young person's game, if you start at 18 you will probably only be able to do it for 3-4 years, and then you get bumped out by younger people. So a good job? Yes. A good career? Not exactly.

Not at all. I used a sports analogy once before in the argument, and it seems to fit here as well. People make careers of being a sports stars, but eventually get replaced by younger and upcoming stars.

Except in most sports you can easily play into your 30s, I believe that in porn females at least generally retire in their early to mid 20s. Also not sure about how much money the actors and actresses make, but big sports stars make enough in their 15 year careers that they never have to work again. Of course most of them still do, but that's beside the point.

I think this comes down to how you define a career. I wouldn't see being part of the porn business as a career if you are part of the pornography itself, but the business end is an entirely different thing.

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tiny tim wrote:Except in most sports you can easily play into your 30s, I believe that in porn females at least generally retire in their early to mid 20s. Also not sure about how much money the actors and actresses make, but big sports stars make enough in their 15 year careers that they never have to work again. Of course most of them still do, but that's beside the point.

I don't know if numbers necessarily qualify something as being a "legitimate business." I'm sure the mafia, gangs, drug cartels, black marketeers, and other such "businessmen" make ungodly amounts of money as well, but that doesn't really make them any more legitimate.

What it really comes down to, in my opinion, as far as being a legitimate career path, especially, is what is required to perform it. And the answer: nothing. Pretty much anyone can do it. Literally. Horribly disfigured? There's a fetish for that. Morbidly obese? There's a fetish for that too. Both a man and a woman? There's a fucking fetish for that. There are literally no prerequisites, other than a general absence of dignity, to go into the porn industry.

So, in my opinion, having porn star as a dream career path is as legitimate as dreaming to work the fries station at a McDonalds or the overnight at a gas station or to be a socialite (someone with no job who just leeches off of rich people). It's a job that a retard could do (there's a fetish for that, don't you doubt).

Rotaretilbo wrote:What it really comes down to, in my opinion, as far as being a legitimate career path, especially, is what is required to perform it. And the answer: nothing.

Well you do have to have your body, and willing allow it be shown and expressed.

Rotaretilbo wrote:Pretty much anyone can do it.

Anyone can do anything really. And not really "everyone" can just do it. Like any other job, you need qualifications to do the job, and do it well. If you don't, then you're not getting the job.

Rotaretilbo wrote: There are literally no prerequisites, other than a general absence of dignity, to go into the porn industry.

I keep hearing the absence of dignity part, but I don't really understand why. Because someone wants to freely express their body and sexuality? Does that really take away someone's dignity?

Rotaretilbo wrote:So, in my opinion, having porn star as a dream career path is as legitimate as dreaming to work the fries station at a McDonalds or the overnight at a gas station or to be a socialite (someone with no job who just leeches off of rich people). It's a job that a retard could do (there's a fetish for that, don't you doubt).

Well I view it as any other career choice. As long as you choose it with your freewill you should be able to pursue it without regret and enjoy it.

There are two (obvious) perspectives from which one could look at this question, both with legitimate reasoning.

From an economic standpoint, pornography is a perfectly viable occupation. It is a legal way to earn money, and that's all that really matters in the economy.

From a (religious) moral outlook, it is wrong. "Legal" is not always synonymous with "moral". Yes, people succumb sin all the time, but that does not justify consciously and willingly participating in ongoing sin.

Personally, I would classify it as a "dumb decision" as you put it. However, the poll asks if it is a "real career choice", to which the answer would have to be yes. Because of this confusion, I abstained from voting.

Last edited by CivBase on Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:48 am; edited 1 time in total